My Male Is Becoming Aggressive Towards His Tankmates

[zippa]

my male betta, derek is becoming increasingly aggressive towards his tank mates ... neon tetras in particular. they dont nip him, in fact they try to keep their distance. any idea what could be causing this?

 

[K.J.]

This is to be expected. He may have decided this should be his territory and fight off anything that gets near it. I'd suggest taking him out and putting him in a 2G unless you want a dead betta or a couple of nipped up fish.

 

[liz2]

he needs to be on his own. Bad fish they usually do this but you dont want injured fish

 

[zippa]

as the tank he is in is a 4 foot and theres a lot of places to hide do you think it will stop or not?

 

[faithless1294]

i wouldnt of thought it would be worth it to wait i think it would be best to move the betta to tank of his own for safety of all the fish.

 

[zippa]

seems its just a lil bit flaring specially if they go near his hideout (wood). maybe i should move him to be on the safe side. shame hes been great with his tankmates till now. im sure hes getting grumpy with age

 

[faithless1294]

one of my bettas was very boring and not very active for a while and then all of a sudden he went hyper! i think it would be best to move him
Good Luck.

 

[girl4God81]

I completely agree. Often times they will be fine for days or even a couple weeks but snap out of nowhere. It's like pent up anger, lol. No but he's being a normal male betta, they are very territorial and he's beginning to claim his territory! I did the same with one of mine, he's a very agile boy but he started to become increasingly aggressive over time. Almost as if when he flared, he noticed some of them were scared so he was thinking "wow, it's working!!!" lol He certainly appeared much happier once I ave him his own "territory" to dictate

 

[stang1]

I agree also. Some people have success keeping a Betta in a community tank but you never know if their behaviour might change. It's not something I'd risk as I'd be constantly watching the tank and not enjoying it as much.
All my boys are in tanks on their own and to be honest, they are so pretty, you don't need anything else in with them.

 

[zippa]

hes on his own now. and i must say he seems very happy. pretty soon hell have a few females for company next door to him

 

[liz2]

Well done...its not worth waiting for trouble.
One of my latest ones Koi2, is really funny. He sees me looking at him and rushes up to flare so I waggle my finger at the tank and tell him not to be horrid to his mum and then walk away. So every time anyone looks at him he flares and then swims off all smug..

 

[zippa]

hahhahaha.

 

[zippa]

wow he must be very happy. went to watch the match. cam back and hed built him self a bubble nest awwww he needs a girly